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2013 a big year in the legislature

By Erika Stutzman

Posted:
12/22/2013 01:00:00 AM MST

After some previously failed efforts to legalize civil unions in Colorado and pass a law that will help undocumented high school graduates afford state colleges and universities, 2013 saw those come to pass.

More controversial were the minor gun laws which were passed a year after the Aurora theater massacre and the devastating elementary school mass shooting in Newtown, Conn. They passed all right, and remain the law, but not without exacting a political price.

The ASSET law allows students who were brought here by their parents as children pay in-state tuition for universities, like all their fellow graduates from the Colorado high schools they attend. Civil unions allow gay and lesbian couples to be treated with more equity in a state that, to our shame, put straight marriages into the state constitution. Neither are uncommon laws in America, but it took Colorado a little while to get there. The legislature passed some gun regulations, including background checks for firearm sales.

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Then came the first-ever recalls in the Colorado legislature, leading to two recalled lawmakers and one resignation. Recalls over single issues, and not malfeasance or unethical behavior, are a horrible way to run a democracy and we hope that's the end of that. The gun lobby, despite the fact that guns are still perfectly legal and easy to buy in Colorado for the non-felonious among us, has its fires stoked. No matter: The laws still stand for now.

If recalls and the looming threat of recalls over a single issue aren't enough to cool down a group of lawmakers -- and good lord, let us hope they're not -- a gubernatorial election year will be.

Gov. John Hickenlooper is running for another term, and thus the top elected Democrat in the state won't be sticking his neck out for much. Without his support, the legislature won't have much impetus to tackle big issues.

So the next few months in 2014 under that gold dome will likely be quiet ones after a tumultuous big year. But 2013 will be the year the legislature took on some of the biggest issues of our day -- legal civil unions, an ASSET bill, and some common-sense gun regulations -- and were able to see them become state laws.

Colorado's economy is expected to grow, in fact we're expected to be one of the best-performing states in America next year. Laws that can make it easier to launch new businesses, and navigate the regulatory environment including implementing the new health care law, would be welcome measures.

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